You’ll be pleased to know that one thing we will add to Monsters in an upcoming patch is a difficulty setting menu - you won’t be able to use the online ranking (that wouldn’t be fair) but you can advance on any difficulty you like… even expert (which yes, is harder than the default setting). The patch will be free.

As for Eden, well… that’s way too easy a game to make it any easier, surely???!
At least in co-op you can reach out and catch your betrothed if she falls, the veritable juliet to your romeo so to speak.

However, we do have lots of ideas for the expansion pack as the controls are too much fun to waste on just one set of game rules. I’m sure we will try and add a more namby pamby mode for the “lighter” people out there.

It's nice to see PixelJunk listens to the namby pamby players. That so should be the brand's new slogan or something. Cuthbert better copyright that and pronto! Otherwise, he'll be sorry.

Dylan Responds [citizengame via The BBPS]

Eurogamer
What's confusing is the game's wild and carefree disdain for consistency, and the way it throws its head back and laughs in the face of the laws of physics. Many jumps are hard to judge, because the game seems to decide whether your character will make them based on how it's feeling at precisely that moment in time. A plant that looks impossibly far away might be easily reachable, and vice versa. So you're left confused about what your character's capable of, which routes through the level are feasible and why these two aspects appear to change on a moment-to-moment basis.

Boomtown
Remote play on PSP makes a welcome appearance, and works very well, in no small part due to the simplicity of the controls and visuals. Then there is the ‘revolutionary’ trophy addition which will certainly sell a few more copies of the game for those hoping to ‘level up’ their PSN accounts. Thankfully, adding more value than just having to complete each level, the trophies vary between a completist’s dream, opening all of the seeds in each level to a rather crazy trapeze based three player achievement.

1UP
Eden's heart lies as much in its audiovisual detail as it does in any structural or gameplay elements. Strikingly colorful and abstract, the mesmerizing backdrops complement the sparse game perfectly. Even when the levels start flipping gravity and tweaking the relationship between the enemies and environments, it's easy to appreciate the visuals acting as the motivating force behind the action. The music isn't quite as interesting and doesn't evolve much throughout the journey, but the beats are still an essential part of the experience (the louder, the better).

UGO
PixelJunk Racer was cool and PixelJunk Monsters sucked away a good few months, but PixelJunk Eden is straight-up digital crack. The ever-increasing difficulty challenges without ever becoming overly frustrating, probably because the sights and sounds are so damn calming and the controls, so charmingly simple and intuitive. If it sounds too abstract, do yourself a favor try the demo on PSN. PixelJunk Eden is a wholly unique gaming experience, one which is difficult to accurately describe. Like the best things in life, it must be sampled to be truly understood.

I spent the better part of Tuesday playing PixelJunk Eden, leading to me having to stay up until 6AM to finish Eternity's Child for my review. 'Nuff said.

PixelJunk Eden is a short-form PSN title so there are fewer trophies when compared to, say, a Blu-ray title (which can have the esteemed platinum trophy), but we still managed to pack in quite a few. To begin with, you can get a bronze trophy for opening every “seed” in a stage. This is quite a challenge on some of the stages as the gardens are large and expansive. Then there are trophies for a load of other things, such as destroying 500 of the “prowlers,” or collecting 15 “crystals” in one jump. My personal favorite is a trophy that you can only achieve in 3P mode, where you have to “volley” a player between you back and forth five times without him/her landing on a plant, a bit like tennis.

Sounds great. Very much looking forward to this one.

PixelJunk Eden: Trophies Galore! [PlayStation.Blog]

Well, for games, not only is there music, but there are also sound effects and we had to design both not to conflict with each other. For example, we tried to keep the rhythm sections and tones simple because of this. We also paid attention to giving the sound effects and music a sense of unity. The stages in Monsters are basically one screen so we attempted to use the music to expand the world beyond that for the player

Hit the link for more with Otograph, and keep your eyes peeled for the PixelJunk Monsters soundtrack on PSN today for $2.99.

PixelJunk Monsters Soundtrack: An Interview with Otograph [Official PlayStation Blog]

"...my wife simply loved the game so much she would badger me every day for more levels, so in the end I caved in."

PixelJunk Monsters Encore details + interview [Official PlayStation Blog]

The main thing I learned at Nintendo was that being "anal" is the most important asset a game creator needs to have. Mr. Miyamoto has the uncanny ability to spot the most minute detail in any game; just the odd pixel out of place and he will strike upon it like an eagle. So, although we are nowhere near that level yet, I am trying to guide everyone at Q to get good at "the details".

The other thing I learned from Nintendo, is learning to look at your game from a distance towards the end of development and decide what really needs to be done to make the game into a sell-able product. This is almost totally separate from the creative "game-making" process and most companies let their marketing departments do it which, in my opinion, is totally wrong.

Dylan Cuthbert of Q-Games showed off the above trailer at the first day of the Game Developers Conference, revealing PixelJunk Eden to the public for the first time. According to Cuthbert, the third game in the PixelJunk series is like "an organic Mario" in which the player collects pollen to make other plants grow. With a combo-based scoring system, the psychedelic experimental PlayStation Network title extends the PixelJunk credo of bringing simple, 2D games into high definition. Q-Games' latest looks like a fresh and welcome addition to their already interesting line-up of games.

And it's sort of been rocking my world.

It's unfair, really, that Desktop Tower Defense has become the new gold standard of the genre. Because while the game is excellent, its success forces us to expect more of the same—and I daresay, even hope for more of the same—in other tower defense titles.

So when I loaded PixelJunk Monsters, I was immediately frustrated by the interface. Not only does the game limit you by demanding that turrets can only be placed where there are trees (eliminating the DTD maze creativity altogether), but it forces you to ration your movements wisely. Instead of playing a god that can place turrets at will, you control a little man that runs around doing such tasks instead. So your character has to simultaneously build turrets, stand by said turrets for them to upgrade (money alone will not accomplish this feat), dodge between monsters to pick up money and power-ups (because if you get hit, your coins go Sonic) and occasionally run back to his base to unlock new turrets (oh, because every level forces you to unlock the good weapon through gem purchases).

But the result of all these choking restrictions is remarkably enjoyable. PixelJunk Monsters forces a constant in the moment juggling act that requires intelligence and dexterity. Gameplay varies between a chaotic mess and an extraordinary coordinated ballet—depending on how well the level is going at that moment. But in either circumstance, the game is always fast, fun and crazy addictive. And it's been sucking up way too much of my time when I have a stack of "AAA" games to play.

PixelJunk Monsters Set to Launch Next Week [PlayStation Blog]

Video games used to be taken far more seriously than they are now; over here the gaming culture was affected adversely by advancing mobile phone tech., which back in the late '90s and early '00s was years ahead of the West. Suddenly people were playing (not games) with their phones and being more sociable than before, which isn't necessarily a bad thing for the human race. However, the Japanese still think of themselves as a kind of gaming mecca because they have a few god-like presences. In reality though, gaming has become less central and more a standard commodity; the Wii and DS have proved this with their huge demographic range. People want to play games, but without the huge investment of time and money games used to take up.

You could look at it the other way around and consider that games are taken so seriously here they are a "standard" in everyday life. There is just an increasingly diminishing core of hard core game players and increasing number of light, casual, "least-possible-investment" players.

"For the first few months of working here, my old boss at Lionheads Studios thought I was working with Mizuguchi," says Q-Games planner Rhodri Broadbent, lounging on a sofa in the developer's third floor Kyoto office space. There's a hi-def TV playing their latest, PixelJunk Racers. Whenever Q-Games is first mentioned, Rez creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Q? Entertainment is usually as well — though Q-Games had the "Q" before Mizguchi left SEGA to set up his boutique studio. Sure, Q-Games may not have Miz, but it does have Dylan Cuthbert, who helped create Star Fox while working for Nintendo, and Kenkichi Shimooka, who developed Ape Escape for the PlayStation. Dylan has the chicken pox and couldn't make it. Kenkichi? No clue where he is.

I'm in a white meeting room, waiting for the interview to start. I peer down the street still slick with rain. There are traditional Kyoto-style houses across the street from the modern office building. In the meeting room, there's a clock, a white board (fitting) and ping pong nets. When not used as a meeting room, it's converted into a ping pong room. Well, that's what the recruitment brochure tells me — and the drawer of ping pong equipment doesn't lead me to believe otherwise. A trio of developers enter, trade business cards and speak in British and North American accents. Almost half the office is foreign. These devs sitting across from me were instrumental in bringing Q-Games first game label PixelJunk title Racers to the PlayStation Network.

"How many people were involved in creating the title?" I ask.
"You're looking looking at them," Braodbent says, laughing. "We're not just trying to get that old school feeling in the game itself, but also in the way we make them."

Typically, there was a team of 4~5 people working full-time on PixelJunk Racers. The title itself is fairly straight forward — deceptively simple, even. It's a top down, slot-car style racing game that features over thirty modes like "Fireball Frenzy" in which hitting other cars causes you to speed up or "Balloon Burst" in which your car is propelled by deflating it. The slot car element gives the game a puzzle feel in which it's more about "maneuvering" and less about "driving" where the goal isn't finishing the race, but completing the objective. Players use the analogue trigger for the gas and the directional pad for, well, directional movement.

As I play through with the guys who created the title, it truly seems like they are enjoying themselves. They turned around the game into a finished product within months, bypassing that brick wall that most developers smack into. Even after spending months (as opposed to years) working on Racers, they tell me that it still seems fresh. And more importantly, fun.

"Even though Racers isn't going to be on Xbox Live," Broadbent explains. "We tried to adhere to Xbox Live size limitations." Meaning? Racers clocks in at a little over 40 MBs and loads quick. Twenty-five percent of that is music.

With an international working environment, Q-Games was able to see what particular modes and games appealed to Japanese players and Western players. For example, Japanese staff enjoyed the brutally difficult "frustration games." Western team members, on the other hand, enjoyed the loose, high speed titles.

Through obvious strong connections at Sony (both of the Q-Games founders worked there), the developer was able to release PixelJunk Racers as the first PSN licensee for Sony Japan. For a network still in its infancy, Q has gotten in on the ground floor. While everything hasn't been smooth sailing (the morning Racers launch, there were issues with the online leader boards), Sony is expressing a strong desire to get online, says Q. And get it right.

"The support we've been getting has been incredible," adds Broadbent.

The game was conceived earlier this year when Q-Games founder Cuthbert was kicking around a new brand idea called "PixelJunk." A slot car game was proposed, and then pitched to Sony at this year's GDC. But, not just one PixelJunk title was pitched. Close to twenty were that ran the gamut of an airport game to a mountain climbing game to a taxi company game. All of them were top down just like Racers. All Q-Games employees are encouraged to pitch titles and can created demos on an in-house engine. That lets them see if the titles are even possible. The taxi game was deemed too busy and had too much going on the screen at once for the brain to process. Broadbent shows me concept art that was used in the GDC pitch to Sony.

GDC? That was back in March? Quick turnaround — especially, in an age where most projects lumber on for years. Q-Games has the nascent stages of an PixelJunk production line going. Last minute touches are being placed on Racers, which is already out in North America. The game is gearing up for its Japan release on September 20th and its October 1st European release.

Meanwhile, a second PixelJunk title is being developed — this one quite different from the dizzying Racers. It's a tower-type game in which the goal is buy and set up towers to shoot enemies. Different from the arcady vibe in the first PixelJunk game, but does a nice job of showing how broad the brand is. Like with Racers, the second PixelJunk game shows a fixed screen and has a black line at the bottom with the brand's logo. The music, as with Racers, is from Kyoto-based musicians and is mellow. Same's true for the game.

There's a third game in the preparation stage as well. Actually, the idea didn't come from Q, but one of the Kyoto musicians who created the soundtracks for a PixelJunk title. What's more, there's a fourth title in the preparatory stage. What's linking all the current PixelJunk titles is one fixed screen. That alone links the PixelJunk titles. For now. The current plan is a series of five or six games, and then introduce a new element that ties together the next PixelJunk series. So, if you don't like one particular game or style, there is more coming. Much more.

"We're trying to get them out as quickly as possible," assures Broadbent. "With a pipeline of three on the go at once."